“It’s not sleep you need; it’s exercise,” he said peevishly. “I’m the doctor; I know what’s good for you. Come, you’re wearing walking boots. Come for a walk with me and tomorrow we’ll buy new clothes for you. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? A nice new hat with ribbons and flowers?”

He spoke as if she were a child with limited faculties. But then, that’s how people spoke to a madwoman. That’s how he viewed her.

She covered her face with her hands and glimpsed the bed through her interlaced fingers. That’s where she’d spend the night. With Teddy.

Once, it would have been a dream come true. Teddy’s comforting arms round her, his tenderness at such odds with Robert’s callous disregard for her feelings.

Finally, after much grumbling, Teddy went out, and for the first time in a long while, Lily felt the tug of obligation lessen. She stood up and opened the casement windows, breathing in the fresh sea air. Alone, she felt healthy and invigorated. Healthier than she had in a long time.

In the distance, she could see Teddy walking down the road. There was a swagger in his step, and she squinted as she saw him doff his bowler to a couple of young ladies approaching from the other direction.

Teddy was married, she reminded herself. He would not offer her the future she wanted.

She began to pace, testing her faculties. Her strength of body. And mind. Right now, she was well. Quite possibly she wouldn’t suffer another episode in months.

She couldn’t go back to Hamish, but…

Pushing aside the pang of longing at the thought of him, she questioned her other future. Did she have to remain under Teddy’s care?

The moment she fell ill he’d send her right back to the maison. Or worse.

And Robert? What would he do when he found her? He was angry enough as it was that the wife he’d though dead was inconveniently alive. Worse was the fact she was in just as poor a state of mind as she ever had been.

Though, right now, Lily felt her faculties were sound. The brain fog had gone, and her energy was returning.

A chilly breeze was blowing through the window, lifting the papers on the small writing table, tossing them to the ground. She went to close the casement, picking up the envelope that had fallen on the floor, recognising it as a letter Teddy had been writing. And a name. Robert.

Cold, clammy fear rushed through her. Teddy was in communication with Robert? She scanned the letter. He was accepting a dinner invitation. Teddy and his wife to join Robert and his wife. Next Thursday, at Robert’s Norfolk home.

Shaking, she dropped the letter upon the table.

Teddy wasn’t going to look after her. Teddy wasn’t going to be saddled with her.

Lily was, as ever, an inconvenience.

And Teddy could be ruthless. She knew that.

The breeze had picked up a little. She heard it rattle the casement and, outside, the mournful cry of a seabird. In two hours, it would be dark once more. In the distance, the sea tossed itself in a white-topped frenzy upon the rocks at the base of steep white cliffs.

Teddy may try to cajole her into a walk at dusk. She could see him in the distance, returning to the inn, a scowl upon his face as he appeared deep in thought.

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It was not a pleasant resting face. He looked cossetted, ill-tempered, petulant. He’d want a return on what he considered was his care of her.

And, glancing to her right once more, at the crisply made-up double bed, Lily was not in the mood to be called upon to perform for anyone else.

Taking a long, slow, sustaining breath, she clenched her hands, looked at the bed, then at Teddy in the distance, and made a decision.

It was time for her to strike out on her own.

Still, it took a second for her to move, so debilitating was her terror at seeking help from the only person who truly owed her protection.

Then, throwing her shawl about her, and tying her bonnet upon her head, she cast about for anything of value she might possibly use to aid her on her journey, and left the room.

Chapter 34

A distance of roughly a hundred miles separated Lily from the estate where she’d grown up. It might as well have been a thousand.

Tags: Beverley Oakley Fair Cyprians of London Historical
Source: readsnovelonline.net